Originally published at: FAA Proposes Honda HA-480 High-Altitude Conditions
The FAA is proposing special certification requirements for Honda Aircraft’s HA-480, which is designed to operate at altitudes up to 47,000 feet.
I wonder if it would be more cost effective to just certify the plane to FL450, to avoid the additional requirement the FAA wants. I can’t imagine wanting to fly at FL470 on a regular basis. I flew a Citation Ultra which is certified to FL450 and never had to fly any higher than FL430 for weather and reduced fuel consumption. Any higher the loss of cruise performance wasn’t worth it.
Ah, certified to Part 23 not Part 25.
The B707 and B727 were certified to 45,000 feet as Part 25 or predecessor regulation.
I was up to 45,000 feet one night over YVR, felt high (well, … ;-). Had to go there to test new flight data recorder system, regulators tended to ignore that transducer and data wiring would very probably work just like testing on ground.
Years later a fellow DER and I each came back from different flight tests motivated to talk the FAA out of things like trying to achieve -0.25G with 747 and ducking under glide slop on final, testing GPWS. FAA agreed with both of us.
My fading memory of 737-200, despite working performance calculations for it, was that it was not designed to go as high as B727. A later model may have been cleared to higher, with more thrust.
OTOH with its big wing the 767-200’s best trip fuel was high even on 150 nmi shuttle run.
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